


The Moment

by writermegs17



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 11:33:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10875924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writermegs17/pseuds/writermegs17
Summary: When Iris first realizes that she loves Barry. (Continuation of 3X21 Flashback)





	The Moment

One Wednesday night Barry Allen comes to stay with Iris West and her father. You see, earlier this evening. Barry’s mother was murdered and they took his father into custody for committing the crime. Iris doesn’t think that any of this could possibly make sense. She knows her friend’s father and swears that he would never hurt a fly, let alone kill someone. Iris looks at the little boy standing in front of her, Barry hasn’t said a single word since he arrived. He just stands there in complete shock. So, Iris does the only thing she can think of and takes her friend’s hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

“You’re going to be okay, Barry.” She whispers, not sure if that was the right thing to say to a little boy whose entire world just got turned upside down, but she hopes that he’ll find some comfort in it anyway.

 Barry doesn’t say anything, he just stands there, still as a statue, his green eyes impossibly wide.

“Iris, baby girl, it’s late, why don’t you go back upstairs to bed, so that we can try and let Barry get some sleep.”  Joe tells her.

“Okay, night Daddy, night Barry.” Iris says, giving her father a kiss on the cheek before heading back upstairs to her bedroom.

Iris isn’t asleep for long before she hears a noise coming from downstairs. A little scared, she gets out of bed, heads downstairs to peek over the banister, and her heart tightens because Barry is sitting on the couch crying his eyes out.

“Barry?” she calls out, making sure he knows he isn’t alone.

“I want to be alone, Iris.”  Barry sobs.

“I know, but I can’t leave you alone like this, you need a friend. Nobody should be alone when they cry.

“Then can you just sit here? I don’t feel like talking.”

“Whatever you need, Barry.”

As the little boy continues to sob, Iris hold his hand. After a few minutes, when sobs make it hard for Barry to breathe, she lays his head in her lap, his breathing slows to a normal rate, and the cries are subdued to a small whimper.

“My mom, she’s gone, Iris, and she’s not coming back.” Barry finally brings himself to whisper through tears.

“I know Bear, I’m so sorry.”  
“My dad, he didn’t do it, I swear he would never hurt her, you have to believe me.”

“I believe you, Barry. I promise.”  
“The police said my dad’s going to prison, and that he’s never getting out, I tried to tell one of them that he didn’t do it, but he said I was dreaming, but I wasn’t, I swear.”  
“Barry, I think you need to go to sleep.  It’s been a long night for you.”

“I can’t, Iris. Every time I try to close my eyes I have nightmares.”

“Maybe that’s because you’ve been alone, but you’re not alone anymore, and you never will be. I’ll stay right here.

“Okay.”

After a few minutes, Barry starts to cry again, his head resting comfortably in Iris’s lap, while streams of tears pour down his cheeks, as he occasionally stops to rub his eyes with the softness of the sleeve of his maroon pajama top. Sometimes Iris can feel his breathing catch in his throat.

Finally, she wraps an arm around him whispering to him that he’ll be okay, that he’s safe, and most importantly, she believes him. She can’t stand to see the sadness in his eyes. Barry Allen was supposed to be the happiest boy she had ever met, but now he was lying on her couch feeling scared and alone, having lost everything in just a matter of hours. At 11 years, old Iris can barely wrap her head around the pain that her best friend has been feeling. Yeah, she supposed it hurt that her mom was gone, but at least that was all she ever knew. She has the chance to become used to Living without her mother and as much as that hurt, she’d come to accept it.  Barry on the other hand, had just lost every bit of family that he has ever known. In that moment, Iris realizes for the first time, just how much Barry needed her, and maybe she needed him too. He was her best friend, and nobody ever made her feel as happy as he does.

 Finally, when he falls asleep, Iris realizes that she loves him, she’s not sure what that means because no one ever gives an 11-year-old girl the ability to love a boy that isn’t their father. But she loves Barry Allen, she knows she does, with everything inside her heart.  A Smile spread across her lips slowly when she realizes that Barry has fallen asleep. She gets up and spreads an extra blanket across his body because extra blankets always make her feel safe, and she hopes it’ll work for Barry too. Before climbing up the stairs, Iris kisses Barry on the cheek. “Goodnight Barry, I love you.” She whispers, a promise to him that she will always believe in him and never let him feel alone.


End file.
